Florida’s largest teachers union has filed a lawsuit against the state over a new law that restricts some public unions but exempts those that the lawsuit claims support Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In the lawsuit filed this week, the Florida Education Association said the bill discriminates against teacher’s unions on political grounds and thus runs afoul of the First Amendment by penalizing political speech.
“In a bid to punish the ‘school unions’ and other public employee unions who have opposed him (‘disfavored unions’), Governor DeSantis pushed for ‘unprecedented’ changes to Florida’s collective bargaining law to harm disfavored unions while exempting those unions representing law enforcement, corrections, and firefighter employees who have supported him (‘favored unions’),” the lawsuit reads.
Under the new law, union dues will no longer be automatically deducted from paychecks. Those wishing to be a part of the union need to mail in a separate check to pay their monthly dues. Unions can also be decertified if less than 60% of eligible employees are members.
As the lawsuit says, police, corrections and fire unions are exempt from the law’s restrictions. The state’s two largest police and fire unions, the Florida Professional Firefighters Union and the Florida Police Benevolent Association, each endorsed Mr. DeSantis for reelection as governor in 2022.
The bill, which the Republican governor signed Tuesday, was almost universally panned by teachers’ groups and Democratic lawmakers who called the bill a “union-busting” measure.
“We can trust teachers to make their own personal choices in how they spend their hard-earned money, and attempting to silence the groups that advocate for better pay and better working conditions is unconstitutional and undemocratic,” said Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, Broward County Democrat.
The bill is part of Mr. DeSantis’ struggle against teachers and the education system in Florida.
They locked horns most vigorously during the COVID-19 pandemic when teachers fought to keep schools closed to in-person learning while the governor sought to reopen as quickly as possible.
Since then, Florida Republicans have passed legislation restricting gender and sexual education in schools and have made it easier to remove from schools books that some deem explicit. Mr. DeSantis has accused teachers in the state of indoctrinating children with left-wing ideology.
The governor has defended the new law by saying it adds more transparency to unions, which he said have become “very partisan.”
